Tragedy May Change Policies On Ill Students

BLACKSBURG — College counselors say more students on campus now are mentally ill, which creates problems for the universities.

It seemed like everyone who knew Cho Seung-Hui at Virginia Tech witnessed his odd, disturbing behavior -- professors, classmates, roommates and two women he stalked.

He made overtures so unwelcome to the young women that their ultimate rejections had to be delivered by the campus police. They, in turn, were troubled enough to send him to a mental health facility after a court magistrate declared him "mentally ill" and "an imminent danger" to himself or others. That was in 2005. Neither of the women was among the shooting victims.

Campus police also had consulted with Virginia Tech English professor Lucinda Roy, who'd reported disturbing writing assignments from Cho that raised a red flag for her. But the police determined that there were no explicit or implied threats in the writings and chose not to take action.

But he remained enrolled at Virginia Tech, where his mental state deteriorated. On the other hand, he apparently committed no crime and threatened no violence to others.

The director of campus counseling, Chris Flynn, said that the English Department had requested a meeting with counselors about how to deal with troubled students, but he didn't know what prompted the request and said specific students weren't discussed.

In interviews with national broadcast outlets, professor Nikki Giovanni said her students stopped showing up for class because Cho's writings and behavior made them uncomfortable. She asked to have him removed from her class and threatened to quit if he wasn't.

"It was the meanness that bothered me," she said, adding that she felt certain she wasn't being targeted on Monday because she taught in a building far from the crime scenes. After Giovanni's request, Roy, who led the English department, offered to do one-on-one sessions with Cho. During them, she encouraged him to seek counseling.

Now, the question is, with all the warning signs, should the university have taken more aggressive action to deal with the troubled student? Could something have been done to prevent Monday's massacre?

Second-guessing Virginia Tech's actions could prompt changes in the way U.S. college campuses handle students with mental illnesses. It's already an issue complicated by questions of medical confidentiality, universities' legal liability and a rising population of college students with serious mental illnesses.

It's an acute problem, according to the National Survey of Counseling Center Directors conducted last year. Ninety-two percent said the number of students with severe psychological issues has increased in recent years. They said 40 percent of students seen at counseling centers have severe problems, including 8 percent whose impairments are so serious that they can't remain in school or can do so only with extensive treatment.

Ironically, college counselors attribute the rise to improvements in psychiatric drugs that allow more people with mental illnesses to make it to college.

It has created new problems for universities, where counseling centers often are not equipped to deal with serious illnesses and increasing numbers of students who need treatment.

Kevin Kruger, associate executive director of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, said the Virginia Tech tragedy is likely to influence many colleges' policies about how they identify students who might dangerous. "My gut on this is we're going to become more likely to want to remove students from the educational environment," Kruger said. *